Kawasaki GPz305: Rescued from the River

I picked up a 1984 GPz305 from an insurance company (through a local dealer) for what I thought must be the bargain of the year at £125. The bike had been stolen and dumped in the river when the thieves couldn’t start it. I was assured the engine was sound (it had over 22000 miles on the clock) whilst the bike didn’t look as if it had been crashed.

The carbs were removed and cleaned up - I was hoping that this plus an oil change would have her running. It didn’t, mud had seeped in through the air filter and I had to do a top end strip to remove the mud. Some petrol in a newish undented tank and it fired up. The engine was quickly turned off because it sounded like a worn out dumper truck.

This had taken things to the limit of my mechanical knowledge, so I pushed the bike to my friendly (well he was by the time I’d bought all the bits from him) local dealer to look at the engine, balance the carbs and do an MOT test. He refused to touch the electrics after looking at the mess of wires under the seat, which I had spent many an evening trying to sort by touching wires together.

I had to part with 200 drinking vouchers for road tax and insurance. Giving a mate a lift I almost threw him off the back, so much more power compared to my MZ125. I was so pleased with my new toy that in the next week I covered 300 miles just riding for the fun of it in the evenings.

Then the motor started making a rattling noise - one new camchain later I was back on the road. I’ve only taken the bike for one long run when it refused to start after stopping for petrol; a rewired ignition circuit sorted that out. The only other problem was the speedo that had rusted up after being immersed in the river. Recently, a false neutral has developed between 5th and 6th gear but that'll have to wait, hopefully until next winter. The gearbox can be a bit notchy at the best of times.

Despite all the problems (not really the bike’s fault) I do find it quite an excellent device. The combination of speed (105mph really but I’ve seen 115mph on the clock before the speedo seized up) and good fuel economy (65 to 80mpg) means it’s a nice balance of fun and low running costs.

The handling is fine except when exiting bumpy bends, when the back end will shake and wobble a little. The twin discs are powerful and I haven’t worn out the pads yet, but the rear drum has very little feel even if it can lock up the rear wheel. As one of the earlier models it’s lumbered with a chain final drive instead of belt but this doesn’t wear too fast, around 12000 miles. I do change the oil every 1000 miles and the oil filter at every other oil change in the pursuit of a long engine life, I also check the valves and plugs once in a while.

I would recommend the GPz305 to anyone, mine’s not for sale, well not for a few years. I expect the bike to run for quite a long time now it’s more or less sorted.

Alastair Scott